The good thing about being a misanthropic cynic is that one never, ever, ever, has to rethink one’s position on humanity. That is, one is constantly pummeled with fresh and undeniable proof the human race is composed almost entirely of a)Morons, b)Villains, c)Villainous Morons.
Case in point, Tom Ridge, who recently said, in defiance of law, custom, and logic, that terror suspects don’t have rights.
Here’s the key moron pull quote:
“I take a look at this individual who has been charged criminally, does that mean he gets his Miranda warnings? The only information we get is if he volunteers it?” Ridge said. “He’s not a citizen of this country. He’s a terrorist, and I don’t think he deserves the full range of protections of our criminal justice system embodied in the Constitution of the United States.”
Uhm…. yeah, that’s right, except for the part where it’s, wait, what’s the opposite of right? “Liberal”, true, but in this case, the word we’re looking for is wrong. Yes, that’s the word. Wrong. Morally wrong and legally wrong.
First, rights are not a function of citizenship; rights are a function of humanity. If you are human, you have rights. Period. Full stop. Tom, you might remember a document called “The Declaration Of Independence”, which spelled out the philosophy America is founded on — the idea rights are inherent in man, and the role of government is to protect those rights. Not create them or grant them — protect them.
“But criminals don’t have rights!”
Well, first off… yes, they do. Their ability to exercise those rights is limited, sometimes permanently, but it’s not possible to remove rights. Inherent in the nature of being human, remember. Second, a suspect is not a criminal. He’s a suspect. The artifice that even if 50 people see him do something, he’s not a criminal until he’s convicted is no mere game of words — it is the very basis of justice.
Furthermore, non-citizens do have rights. If a foreign visitor, or even an illegal immigrant, is accused of a crime, he is not simply shot out of hand or tossed in jail. He has a trial, and at that trial, he is entitled to the full rights of any American citizen — because rights do not come from citizenship, they come from being human. (It is true no government on Earth has ever fully and completely protected all innate rights and not pretended to grant false rights, but, as the saying goes, “The perfect is the enemy of the good.”, and it is an act of base sophistry to claim that if you’re not absolutely perfect, it’s the same as being absolutely flawed.)
We have a man accused of a crime. He is still a human being. He deserves a fair, full, and public trial, so the world can see that America still practices what it preaches, that we are still better than the Islamofascist state the accused would, allegedly, prefer us to become. (Anyone who claims ‘Islamofascist’ is not a valid term…. you’re wrong. It’s hard to imagine a more fascistic ideology actively being practiced in the modern world, outside of North Korea. )